Is Vlasina safe for swimming? Same water, two ratings
The same reading of more than 240,000 coliform bacteria produced two opposite verdicts in eight days. A citizens group filed a criminal complaint, and the Vlasina still carries no warning sign.
Is the water at the Vlasotince bathing area safe for swimming? That depends on which report you read, and both were signed by the same Public Health Institute in Leskovac.
An informal citizens group, Bitka za Vlasinu (Battle for the Vlasina), filed a criminal complaint on August 1 against doctors at the institute and officials at the Vlasotince municipality. The group says residents were misled and that this amounts to abuse of office, because the same water quality was given two opposite ratings eight days apart.
What the numbers actually say
Both July samples taken above the dam returned the same figure: more than 240,000 coliform bacteria per 100 millilitres of water.
For the sample of July 15, the water was placed in class four. The institute said at the time that the water at the bathing area in central Vlasotince “belongs to the fourth category and is not recommended for swimming and recreation”. Samples were taken at two points, above the dam and near the Krusevica weekend settlement.
Eight days later, on July 23, the bacteria count was the same. The rating was not.
How does one bacteria count get two ratings?
The answer lies in what is being measured. The second sampling was assessed under EU Directive 2006/7/EC, which relies on two microbiological indicators only, E. coli and intestinal enterococci. Total coliform bacteria, the very parameter that pushed the water into class four in mid July, do not enter that calculation at all. The institute says Serbian regulations set no specific standards for bathing water, so it turned to the European ones.
The wording in the report follows from that: “bathing water is classified and assessed as bathing water of excellent quality”.
In the same report, published on July 31, the oxygen regime and nutrient content were placed in classes one and two. The microbiological regime remained class four. An “excellent” rating and a class four reading sit side by side in one document.
What happened between the two samplings
After the poor result of July 15, the municipal administration drained the bathing area following a weather service storm warning. Once the basin was cleaned and refilled, the administration requested new sampling, this time at seven locations.
Samples were taken on July 23 and the institute published the results on July 31, adding that the bathing area by the dam had been rated as good bathing water over the past three seasons. The full reports were made available through a link released by the Vlasotince municipal information service.
What the citizens group wants
The complaint was filed the day after the results came out, together with a statement:
NGG “Bitka za Vlasinu” demands an urgent reaction from the Prosecutor’s Office, the arrest of those responsible for this abuse and the immediate installation of signs banning swimming.
The group lists these sources of pollution in the Vlasina:
- untreated sewage
- machine oils from small hydropower plants
- emulsions from a rubber mould factory, D Company in Babusnica
- wastewater from the quarry in Rakov Dol
Why draining the basin probably will not fix it
This is not the first summer with the same question. Last season, inspectors suspected the pollution was not being generated in Vlasotince at all, but arriving from the territory of a neighbouring municipality. The list the group cites now points the same way: Babusnica and Rakov Dol are upstream, outside the reach of the Vlasotince administration.
That is the practical point for anyone planning a day by the water this August. Draining and refilling deals with what is in the basin on a given day, not with what the river keeps bringing into it.
For now there is not a single sign on site. Under the valid rating the water is fit for swimming, so there are no grounds for a ban. A parent taking children to the Vlasina this week has no way of knowing that the same sample carried a keep out recommendation two weeks ago. Which of the two reports stands is now a question for the prosecutor’s office, and the swimming season has a few weeks left to run.
